Posts Tagged ‘Graph Search’

Facebook is bringing a social networking element to search with the beta launch of its own search engine, Graph Search.

It will allow users to search for friends or people they have interacted with by using cross-sections of information within their social network. Initially, only photos, people, places and interests will be searchable, but more content will be added in future.

Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg says “Graph Search is not Web search” and describes the new search feature as the social network’s “third pillar” after its news feed and timeline.

“Graph Search is a completely new way for people to get information on Facebook,” says Zuckerberg. “Graph Search is a really big project. It will take years and years to map the whole index of the graph. Eventually, we want to index all the posts and all of the content on Facebook.

“This is one of the coolest things we’ve done in a while.”

Zuckerberg insists that Graph Search is not intended to be a rival to Google. All searches will be restricted to Facebook. Users with wider search queries will be directed to Bing, through a new partnership with Microsoft.

“We have the social network, now we can truly search it,” says Zuckerberg.

Meanwhile, Bing has announced that its search results will now feature five times more content from users’ Facebook friends, including status updates, shared links and comments.